Excess Bitrate Distribution Based on Quality Gain in Sabr Server

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the server constructs a state-based HCM for each of the plurality of media devices.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the HCM provides if a media device is in a buffering state or playback state.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the HCM provides an estimate of a fullness of a media-device buffer.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the determined bandwidth to allocate to each of the plurality of media devices prevents a media device from buffering content already received from the server.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the server or a proxy constructs a NPV for each of the plurality of media devices.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the NPV is based on one or more of the following: video complexity, device profile, service priority level, and codec profile.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the video complexity is derived from video content as an estimation of complexity of the video content.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the NPV is computed based on a complexity of video content for each segment.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the NPV has a linear relationship with the bitrate for a given segment.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the NPV is based or one or more of the following: video complexity, device profile, service priority level, and codec profile.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein video complexity is derived from video content as an estimation of a complexity of the video content.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the NPV is computed based on a complexity of video content for each segment.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the NPV is based on device profile.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the device profile indicates that an active device is undergoing a transition period requiring a modification to the bandwidth assigned to the active device.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the transition period is one or more of the following: a channel change, a pause or resume, a seek, a complete, and a join.